Environment

Wild weather takes toll on infrastructure

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials says its road and bridge standards need to be updated to reflect new realities.

By JOAN LOWYAssociated Press

WASHINGTON — The nation's lifelines — its roads, airports, railways and transit systems — are getting hammered by extreme weather beyond what their builders imagined, leaving states and cities searching for ways to brace for more catastrophes like Superstorm Sandy.

Even as they prepare for a new normal of intense rain, historic floods and record heat waves, some transportation planners find it too politically sensitive to say aloud the source of their weather worries: climate change.